From the Israeli Army to the Little Rock Recordboard

LITTLE ROCK - Less than two years ago, Annya Grom spent her days as a soldier in the Israeli army. Now, the sophomore holds four individual school records for the Little Rock swimming and diving team. The journey has been a long one for Grom, one that started in her hometown of Eilat, located on the coast of the Red Sea.

Growing up as a club swimmer, for half of the year her team went without a facility. That meant they had to use their resources, and the Red Sea became their training grounds. “It’s flat, no waves, but sometimes it gets cold,” said Grom. “The problem is that floating is different [due to the high levels of saline in the sea as compared to chlorinated pools] and you don’t have blocks.” 

Going extra lengths to make practice work paid off: Grom was crowned the Israeli champion in the 50 meter butterfly at age 16. Despite her achievements, she had to put collegiate swimming dreams on pause to join the Israeli army at 18 years of age. 

That meant that during her mandatory military service, Grom had to find her own way to stay on track to reach her goals, which was difficult since there was no pool on base. Friday and Saturdays were days off, so she used her free time to go home and swim in the mornings and afternoons twice a week. As her time in the army was reaching an end, she also had to represent herself to form connections with college coaches, which wasn’t always easy. 

“I tried my best to keep myself in shape,” said Grom. “It was insanely hard, but I was always thinking about it. Even so, coaches often were scared because my times weren’t that good, and as a soldier that didn’t swim competitively for two years, they assumed that it even got worse.”

However, after talking to head coach Amy Burgess through a website designed to connect international swimmers with American college coaches, Grom knew she found something special at Little Rock.

Once the Israel native arrived at Little Rock in the fall of 2019, the struggles of getting used to the collegiate environment after only training twice a week for the past two years did show on paper, however.

“I felt like every meet during the season was really rough for me,” admitted Grom. “My times were not good. The load of your body [getting back into shape] is just insane and then you have to look forward to taper, so you really don’t know where you stand. I didn’t know if I could go faster.”

However, once the taper hit and Little Rock took to the blocks at the 2020 Missouri Valley Conference Championships, Grom burst onto the scene, breaking the Little Rock 100 breaststroke school record in prelims, to her surprise. It was a moment of triumph for Grom, who felt as if she was on back on track to performing well as an athlete.

Then, the global pandemic hit, and her freshman year came to an end abruptly. Grom stayed in Little Rock since travel became nearly impossible, but her access to water again was shut off since the university pool closed down. Instead, she took up running every day, putting a positive spin on the situation.

“I feel like at some point I did benefit from the pandemic because I feel like a lot of people didn’t do as much,” said Grom. “Everyone was worried, and you didn’t know what was going to happen, but I had people kept telling me it was going to be over some day and that you have to be in shape and get ready for it.”

Once school and swim practices started up again, with no clear indicator on if there would be a competition season, Grom also hit the weight room in her free time with help from her father, who used to be her club coach in Israel. She credits the power gained from extra lifting sessions to her improved sprinting abilities.

The wait was finally over for Grom and the Little Rock program in January, when the conference decided that it would hold a delayed season with a championship meet in April, a vast difference from the usual September through February slate. This time around, however, the sophomore was much more prepared.

In March, Grom made her first statement with two broken records in the 50 freestyle and the 100 freestyle. Two weeks later, she rebroke her own 100 breaststroke mark and added another new school record in the 100 butterfly. The fly swim, the second-best time posted by any swimmer in the entire conference this season, came off of a four-second drop from the last time she raced the event. That last race was over a year ago at the Trojans’ midseason rest meet at Kansas in November of 2019.

Her time in the 100 fly may have been a shock to the Missouri Valley Conference, but not necessarily to Grom, whose primary stroke was butterfly in Israel. Now, with her newfound strength and confidence, she is ready to fill the spot at the championships.

“I have less expectations about places and more about times,” she said, adding that she wants to help her team stay motivated throughout the long three-day meet. “I also think our relays could be really good and finish higher than we did before. I feel like we gained experience going through everything this season.”

With the unorthodox, challenging 2021 swim season wrapping up this upcoming week, Grom and the Little Rock swimming and diving team are prepared to make waves at their conference championships. Follow the Trojans as they compete at the MVC Championships from April 14 through April 16.

For the latest information on Little Rock Swimming and Diving, make sure to check out LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockSwim on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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